SFI AT CLIMATE WEEK NYC 2026

Monday, September 21 – Friday, September 25, 2026

This year, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is hosting two panels at Climate Week NYC 2026:

SFI is also co-hosting the Forests for Climate Happy Hour with ACR, American Forest Foundation, and the Forest Stewardship Council the evening of September 22, 2026.

Together, these sessions offer a chance to sharpen SFI’s leadership in Climate Smart Forestry, markets, conservation, and nature-based climate solutions, grounded in the 2025 American Forest Congress Resolutions and the Markets Matter National Action Plan. Below is a full rundown of where SFI is leading, presenting, and attending throughout the week.

Fore more information about SFI’s Climate Week activities, please contact Greg Cooper.

September 22, 2026 SESSIONS

SFI-led panel, Financing Forests: Certification as the Bridge to Investment and Nature Disclosure
3:35 – 4:20 p.m.

Forests and forest products are central to the current and future nature-based bioeconomy, and forest certification (the premier, established system of third-party auditing and sustainability assurance) is enabling credible nature-related reporting while unlocking reliable investment opportunities. The session will clarify how certification and nature-related disclosure complement each other: certification supports market access and assurance, while nature disclosures focus on disclosing impacts and dependencies on nature. It will examine how certification standards are evolving to meet the demands of a changing climate, with concrete examples of how this is increasingly serving as solid evidence within TNFD disclosures. The discussion will also draw on Nature Action 100, a global investor-led initiative supporting greater corporate ambition to reverse nature and biodiversity loss by 2030. The group engages with sectors and companies that can help meet that goal and has had a particular focus on the forest sector.

Speakers/Panelists:

  • Lauren Cooper (Moderator), Chief Conservation Officer, Sustainable Forestry Initiative
  • Vaughan Andrews, Lead of Corporate Sustainability & Senior Program Manager, Weyerhaeuser Company
  • Chris Davidson, Ph.D, Vice President, Sustainability Engagement, Smurfit Westrock
  • Krista Gnau, Global Sector Lead and Market Engagement Lead for North America

Learn more about ISFC: https://is-fc.com/

September 22, 2026 HAPPY HOUR

Co-hosted by SFI, FSC, AFF, and ACR: Forests for Climate Happy Hour
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Please join us for light bites and beer & wine on your way to dinner.

RSVP: https://is-fc.com/

September 23, 2026: The Nature Hub

SFI supports the 2026 Nature Hub, which aims to showcase nature not only as a solution to climate change but also as a driver of economic development and a means of reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.

September 24, 2026 SESSIONS

CTrees- & Earth Fire Alliance-led panel, Managing Wildfire Risk for the World’s Investable Forests: A Living Map of Forest Risk, at the Treehouse at Doris Duke Center
9:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Co-hosted by CTrees and Earth Fire Alliance (EFA), this workshop brings two missions into one room: CTrees’ work to see every tree on Earth and FireSat’s mission to see every fire. Together they point toward a living map of forest risk and a new ability to act on it. The first panel starts with the people who carry that risk today, drawing on managers, communities, scientists, and the insurers and investors exposed to large-scale fire, to ask what genuinely changes when forests and the fires that threaten them can finally be seen at full resolution. The second panel turns to what that convergence unlocks: FireSat’s global wildfire monitoring in concert with CTrees’ tree-scale biometrics and carbon accounting, and the resilience, stewardship, and investment decisions the combined signal makes possible. The goal is a shared blueprint for how forest monitoring and the finance, policy, and management it informs can co-evolve to make healthy, fire-resilient forests possible.

RSVP: https://luma.com/itp0cp3a

SFI-led panel, Making Nature Market-Ready through US Forestry, at the Treehouse at Doris Duke Center
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Led by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), this invitation-only executive forum brings together climate impact investors, philanthropic leaders, corporate procurement executives, forestry companies, and conservation practitioners at Climate Week NYC 2026. The forum centers on a pivotal moment in Climate Smart Forestry, drawing on the 2025 American Forest Congress Resolutions and the newly released Markets Matter National Action Plan. The event will move us from strategy to structured action, using facilitated audience participation to generate concrete commitments and connections to sustainable investment and procurement in the US forest sector. We will highlight how advanced metrics for carbon, biodiversity, watershed, and harvested wood products are making the climate value of forestry increasingly measurable, verifiable, and fundable.

SPEAKERS/PANELISTS

  • Lauren Cooper, (Moderator) Chief Conservation Officer, SFI
  • Kirstie White, Forest Sustainability Manager, Resource Management Service, LLC
  • Chris Woodall, Director, U.S. Forest Science and Policy, CTrees
  • Chris Davidson, Vice President, Sustainability Engagement, Smurfit Westrock
  • Trevor Cutsinger, Vice President, Natural Capital Solutions, U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities

Learn more about the Treehouse at Doris Duke Center: https://www.dorisduke.org/treehouse

Click here to register.

SFI CONSERVATION IMPACT
SFI CONSERVATION RESEARCH
CLIMATE SMART FORESTRY
SFI CONSERVATION GRANTS
FEATURED GRANT STORIES
Comments or Questions? Contact:
SFIConservation@forests.org

or visit our Staff page for team members.